Raising the Grades

Investment in School Pays Dividends for Region

By Rory Glynn

Progress in education in Northern Kentucky perhaps is best exemplified by the region’s namesake institution of higher learning.

Northern Kentucky University has grown from a
regional commuter school to a campus with an enrollment of nearly
16,000, with 550 full-time faculty members that offers 67 bachelor’s
degrees, six associate degrees and 23 graduate programs.

In the past five years alone, NKU has added the $37
million, 144,000-square-foot student union building; the $60 million,
9,400-seat Bank of Kentucky Center for basketball, concerts and other
events; and the $52.8 million, 110,000-square-foot Griffin Hall, home to
the university’s unique, innovative College of Informatics.

“For those who have been operating companies here
for 15 or 20 years and have an idea of what Northern Kentucky University
used to be, they are continually surprised and amazed at what NKU is
now, and most importantly the quality of the students forthcoming from
NKU,” says Dan Tobergte, president and CEO of the region’s Tri-County
Economic Development Corporation (Tri-ED) and holder of bachelor’s and
master’s degrees from NKU, as well as a law degree from its Salmon P.
Chase College of Law.

“For outsiders coming in who’ve never heard of NKU,
we’re able to impress them quite quickly with a trip to Griffin Hall, to
the student union, to the Bank of Kentucky Center, to the science
center,” Tobergte says.

Even on the playing field, NKU has stepped up in
class, moving this academic year to NCAA Division I athletics, the
highest level of competition. NKU’s teams acquitted themselves well in
their first season of membership in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

“There was a time when people liked NKU and thought
you could get a good education there, but thought maybe it wasn’t on par
with the big institutions,” says Steve Stevens, president and CEO of
the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. “Today, I don’t think anybody
would say that.”

The region’s other higher-education options include
Thomas More College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Crestview Hills,
and since 2002, Gateway Community and Technical College, part of the
Kentucky Community and Technical College System.

Gateway, with campuses in Boone County,
Covington/Park Hills and Edgewood, offers two-year associate degrees and
has become a model for the future by working with business and industry
to tailor instruction, such as manufacturing, to their needs.

“The importance of Gateway cannot be overstated,” Stevens says.

“It means so much to our community now because it has evolved to meet the needs of the business community.”

That kind of forward thinking also helped the Kenton
County School District with the establishment of its Academies of
Innovation and Technology, offering concentrations in such areas as
biomedical sciences, engineering, high-performance production
technology, informatics, media arts and sustainable energy technology in
an effort to align fields of study with anticipated job growth.

Students at Dixie Heights, Scott and Simon Kenton
high schools enrolled in the academies may spend portions of their days
at other campuses.

Several small, independent school districts in the
region continue to perform well. The Beechwood Independent (Fort
Mitchell), Fort Thomas Independent and Walton-Verona Independent
districts ranked second, third and sixth, respectively, in the fall in
the Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) test
scores.

The region has many well-regarded parochial schools
feeding into secondary schools like all-male Covington Catholic and
all-female Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills, as well as Bishop Brossart
in Alexandria, Holy Cross in Latonia, Newport Central Catholic, St.
Henry in Erlanger and Villa Madonna in Villa Hills. In addition,
Covington Latin’s accelerated preparatory program has been an acclaimed
pipeline of college-ready minds.